“No matter how put together we all appear on the outside, on the inside, everyone has burdens”

One thing a rabbi knows: No matter how put together we all appear on the outside, on the inside, everyone has burdens. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has shame. Everyone has moments when life drives us off our map.

No matter how good we look on the outside, no one’s life is normal, not television normal. And no one’s life is perfect. We hide, we escape, we deny. Or worse, we cast out or destroy the one who has frustrated us. That’s the problem.

Rabbi Ed Feinstein, “The Tyranny of the Normal”, Jewish Journal (18-24 September 2015), 20.